ONGC to set up its own power plants

Rajahmundry (AP): State-run exploration giant ONGC Thursday said it plans to set up its own power plants, not just gas-based but also facilities based on nuclear, wind and other conventional energy sources.

"We intend to set up our own power plants, not just gas- based but also power plants based on conventional energy sources besides wind power, nuclear power plants," ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva said.

He was speaking after inaugurating?the monetisation and production operations from the first onshore marginal gas fields in KG basin at Ponnamanda village in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. The fields are to be operated by KEI-RSOS Petroleum & Energy Ltd (KRPEL), a private entity.

"Our focus has been on fields with large gas potential. However, the recent increase in the gas prices has made us to relook at such marginal fields through the public private partnership," Vasudeva said.

"We see tremendous potential in this project with an expectation on three lakh cubic meters of gas, as there are five more well to be drilled. Rajahmundry asset of ONGC has been one of the best assets and hope to see it go from strengthen to strengthen," the CMD said.

He said ONGC has allocated 2 percent of its profits towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.

P K Rao, Manager of the PSU's KG Asset, said the commencement of gas production and monetisation of the three depleted marginal fields near here ? Sirikattapalli, Mullkipalli and Megatapalli ? has proven that ONGC's marginal fields policy has been a success.

Murthy Jasti, Managind Director of KRPEL, said it is an honour to be called "partners" of a great organisation like the ONGC.

KRPEL, the service partner in the project, has laid 15 km of pipelines connecting all the fields and built a gas gathering station capable of processing five lakh cubic metres of gas per day at Ponnamanda.